Britannia Campaign: England

[Ligur]

After a long hiatus I succumbed and reinstalled MTW2 + Kingdoms once and started with England on H/H. What everyone said, abandon Ireland to relieve economic issues. Of course, if you love challenge, don't. Disband everyone from the Irish contingent except for one full stack of the best units you then use to attack Wales. They actually put up a pretty hard fight and trounced me around a bit (maybe I'm just rusty though). Instead of disbanding my expensive cavalry, I used them to attack Wales immediately as well to good effect, doubly so since I made sure quite a bit of them died in the process. My attack consisted of one stack from Ireland to threaten the capital and two stacks coming in from the east in a pincer move, supported by mercs as units died and finally boosted by some late arrivals in the form of new generals and elite cavalry. Along the way I further diluted my expensive heavy cavalry pool by attacking rebel strongholds, thus gaining experience for generals and cutting military budget.

It's turn 10 and I'm sieging the Welsh capital, having wiped them out otherwise. Having built land clearances, roads and ports everywhere I can the economy is finding it's feet. Upgrading to Merchant's Wards and Shipmakers along the coast by turns 9 and 10. I have one stack, including some of the expensive starting cavalry, sitting on the Scottish border, draining money and looking menacing but I don't want the clans to get ideas too soon. Some of the veterans from Wales are already heading for retraining but I'm having a hard time deciding who to attack next, or if I'll stay put until turn 20 or so while I build infrastructure for a serious economic boost and advanced units.

Gloucester, Lancaster and Nottingham were chosen for further castle development, I turned the rest into towns during turns 8-10 (should have done that sooner I guess). This is another move I would suggest early on, given the size of the campaign map I honestly think three well developed castles should be enough (if not too much!) to produce the troops you need: add one or two smartly located larger towns that constantly upgrade blacksmiths, if you don't have the time to do that in your castles, and you are set to produce and retrain elite armies with speed.

A nice bonus are the tin resources in the SW near Launceston, two traders both rake 300+ worth of income each turn. Now that I have money to build I'm planning to send two other traders to Lincoln with the nice sheep resources, they'll pay themselves back in about three rounds and from then on it's profit only.

All in all doing pretty good in my estimation.

[Ligur]

By turn 23 I'm not sure where to waste the money on. I'm invading Ireland with three stacks and a good fleet and have a few stacks just checking the Scots out (instead of one) but we're drowning on money.

edit:

Ok I take it back! Doesn't matter if the economy jumped and leaped forwards, and I was also wrong about 3 castles being enough after all, the logistics and range between England and Ireland make it more difficult then I thought.

By turn 33 I'm not sure whether I thought I'd get off easy, or too easy. The Irish put up a tremendous fight in this game. They have built an enormous force of different cavalry, heavy and horseboys (projectile weapons and extremely fast ponies), and lurk in forests to boot, unwilling to meet on flat ground. The horseboys, while not very effective in the thick of it, reduce my heavy troops with their projectiles and then evade contact expertly, while the rest make me run after them in thick forests. It's sheer hell. Horseboys, while they can't dish it out against heavy cav, they don't really need to, as they dart in and out, bleeding your forces battle after battle after battle. Even if the Irish armies almost never win it does not matter, it takes long enough to ship reinforcements to replace the depleted formations to make any casualties matter. Interesting, it's going to take at least twice as long as I thought. Good campaign.

[Askthepizzaguy]

ATPG's preview of his England AAR:

Turn 1: Moved all expensive forces to occupy the nearest forts to take advantage of the free upkeep. This creates a huge and expense-free standing army.

Did not allow even a single province to rebel. I beefed up my garrisons in ireland and moved my capital to Nottingham, then Oxford next turn. Recruited all forces I could afford.

Turn 2:

Moved all free-upkeep forces in a generally western direction, hopping from fort to fort, making sure I didn't break my budget.

Moved new recruits into the forts for more free upkeep.

Moved spies and other agents towards wales. Beefed up Ireland again, built churches and so on.

Turn 3:

Around about this time, a large army is forming in the fort next to Wales' capital. My armies in Ireland take on King Brian and succeed.

Turns 4-7:

Huge amounts of forces arrive near the Welsh capital, as well as catapults. Irish settlements begin to fall. An alliance forms between England and Scotland.

Turns 8-10:

Wales' capital falls, Caernarvon falls, only one Welsh settlement left. Scottish still busy with Norway. Ireland reduced to two provinces... Ireland's public order problems are gone.

----------------

Future turns:

Ireland should be dead or all but dead by turn 15, and then England invades Scotland, betraying the only other major power.

Game over, English victory. Difficulty: Vh/Vh

[dark@hunter]

when i start this campieng i usually focuse to trian yeoman archers dismounted english knights and heavy billman

[Timmy Boy]

Is there another link for this downloadable guide, or can someone email it to me please? When I click the link provided it just takes me to the start page of the website, which just refreshes itself if I click to enter!

[HolyGateKeeper]

Hahahaha! Ever since I knew, the only way to get rid of the Baron's Alliance is to just kill them off, and keep your towns to a maximum mediation. Hopefully Simon de Montfort is in Hell now, talking to Satan why he'd even rebel against the King knowing full well that he'd be unsuccessful. Well Simon you tried, don't blame yourself but your shrewd, arrogant, and ruthless French-side.

[Tai-Pan]

Do the billmen receive a special bonus against cavalry in Medieval II like they did in I? I know billmen and later halberdiers were absolutely amazing fighting cavalry in I, but the billmen I'm using in II don't seem to do as well against cavalry.